The first volume of the official history of the Falklands Campaign covers the origins of the 1982 war. It describes the long history of the dispute between Argentina and Britain over the sovereignty of the islands, and the difficulties faced by successive governments in finding a way to reconcile the opposed interests of the Argentines and the islanders, and the constant struggle to keep the islands viable. In March 1982 what started as an apparently trivial incident over an illegal landing by scrap-metal merchants on the island of South Georgia turned into a major crisis.